You hear about prayers all the time in most religions, including Jehovah's Witlesses. And they point to scriptures about how God answered specific prayers as evidence that He is ready to answer your prayers. There will be a study article in the February 2008 Kool-Aid for those who have to attend the boasting session (and a Comments You Will Not Hear for those who don't).
Now, I am going to analyze what this has to do with your prayers. First, they discuss prayers in the Bible, almost always in the Old Testament. They will discuss King David's prayers (about victory in his initiatory force usage to vanquish nations that were minding their own business or defending themselves from further initiatory force). Hezekiah also prayed, both for his health and for the nations that were attacking (to defend from further initiatory force from Israel) to be defeated. That was the one where Jehovah sent the angel to kill 185,000 "enemy" men. There are numerous other stock prayers logged in the Bible.
Now, the common denominator is that those prayers that were answered without much degradation and/or delay all pertained to Jehovah's own name. His dawdling on them or downgrading the answer would have led to His ultimate defeat. Those prayers all pertained to keeping the lineage alive or keeping Israel intact and going, ultimately to produce Jesus. True, Jesus could have been born either way, but it would have been a loss of praise (undeserved praise) to Jehovah had He allowed Jesus to have been born a Philistine or Canaanite.
Which means that none of the prayers were for personal needs. In fact, there is no mention where a personal need, save Hezekiah's extension of his life (and there is no guarantee that he wouldn't have gotten better either way), was fulfilled via answered prayer. (And that was put there solely as a stock example for people to refer to when their own needs are not being addressed, so they will continue having false hope and keep wasting their time trusting in that Almighty Louse to address their own needs).
OK, so I have heard of people that have seemingly had prayers answered. But were they? What happens if you pray for something, and then work toward its fulfillment as you are supposed to? Invariably, if anything good does come from it, it is the work alone or the work plus the possibility of insight from just pausing that is wholly responsible. You did the work yourself, and God unjustly gets all the credit. To me, that is a major scam. Doing all the work yourself should entitle you to all the credit. Imagine how pxxxed 50 Cent would have been had God taken all the credit for his masterpieces!
And, when you do get an answer, it is invariably the right brain that is the source. When you pray, chances are you are taking apart the problem, at least subconsciously. And, in doing so, there is a chance you are going to find the solution. Just taking a break from it can often yield the same results.
And, what of those prayers that someone get better, say, after an illness? That they find a job? They find a home? More often than not, those things naturally happen. When we get sick, we are usually going to get better whether or not anyone prays for us. And, since Jehovah is supposedly against use of drugs, what happens when I find and land a job solely because my rivals and/or the person I'm replacing were using drugs? (Every job I have ever had was because someone tested positive for drugs, did a no-show while on drugs, slept on the job because of drugs, or stole for drug money). Is that something Jehovah can take credit for? I don't think so--Satan is the one that gets all the credit.
No matter how you look at it, having your prayers answered is a myth. The Bible has strategic stock incidents that are supposed to replace personal needs, so Jehovah no longer has to actually answer any new prayers in order to look good. I think most of the benefit can be obtained just by taking a pause from the problem at hand, analyzing how something works, and then doing the work yourself. You are still going to have to work, and you are still not certain of attaining the desired result. However, you, not some Almighty Parasite, will get all the credit for a positive outcome. And, there will be no way God can control you by threatening to make it not work. And, don't bother wasting your time thanking Jehovah for anything, either--unless you truly want it taken away never to be seen again.